Nightmares
by Rosie Rubix
Summary: It was a while after Miranda before Simon discovered River's little secret. Post-BDM, hints of Simon/Kaylee, Mal/Inara.


Disclaimer: I own neither _Firefly_ nor _Serenity_. But I just watched them all again, hence...this. I'm making no money from it. Just amusement.

It was a short while after Miranda that Simon discovered River's little secret. Quite by chance, really. Five thirty in the morning, Kaylee was feeling hungry, and he (being a fancy gentleman and all) had offered to go and fetch her the protein of her choice. He had clambered up the ladder, head muzzy and hair every-which-way...

And there was River, climbing up the ladder from Jayne's quarters without a care in the world. Her hair all mussed, her feet bare, and her body half-drowned in an enormous pair of blue tartan pyjamas. She saw him staring, must have felt the rage building its way up, and gave a tiny frown.

'Shh.' She put her finger to her lips, and smiled. 'Vera's asleep.'

And then she danced off down the corridor to her own room, leaving Simon standing, open-mouthed and fish-like, until he managed to pull himself together enough to go fetch Kaylee her victuals.

0700, breakfast time, and all merry manner of hell broke loose. Simon was sitting at the head of the table when Jayne arrived, first up for a change, whistling cheerfully and looking well-rested.

Simon had been worked up to shout, but he decided to start all civilised.

'What was my teenage sister doing in your quarters at 0530, Jayne?'

Jayne was looking more than a mite uncomfortable. Simon stood.

'I asked you a question.'

Jayne shrugged, and attempted a sneer, a touch of his bravado returning.

'Don't make no nevermind to you, fancy boy. Sister's her own person. Maybe she just likes my company.' He grinned. There was a silent, frozen moment, before the doctor lunged for the mercenary and all manner of merry hell broke loose.

It all came out, after that. River was _Serenity_'snew pilot, by common consent. But she had also become _Serenity_'sconfidante. Where Shepherd Book had looked out for their souls, as much as he could, she kept a weather eye on their minds.

Started with Zoe, River had said. The nightmares had woken her from her quarters, and she'd gone to see if they could be fixed. When Zoe woke, trembling, it was River holding her, soothing her, comforting her. She had thoughtfully removed the gun from under Zoe's pillow too. After all, accidents happened.

Everyone had been having nightmares, she had elaborated. And while Simon and Kaylee could seek solace with each other... she let that thought trail off, but Simon was not, contrary to popular opinion, an idiot child. Inara had been napping one afternoon when the horrors took her; Mal had his bad nights when Inara was gone and the ghosts of Serenity Valley and Miranda had loomed large in his imagination; and Zoe woke up crying more often than not, those first few weeks. And none of them had ever said a word about it.

Even Jayne had nightmares, River explained, but left it at that. The contents of the nightmares were nobody else's business.

Mal: Miranda and Serenity Valley, Book and Wash and Mr. Universe and the children, the innocents who had suffered. Even, sometimes, the boy who he had killed rather than dump his payday. And River had come to him, and said, 'Have faith.'

Inara: Death and fire and destruction and pain, and losing Mal in the heart of it. River wiped the tears from her face, and smiled. 'He's right here.'

Zoe: Wash, always Wash. Book, too, but the face of her husband invaded her dreams more nights than not. And she couldn't bring herself to want it to stop. River held her as the tears fell, and she cursed a cruel fate until River had remarked, casually, 'Look after what you have left of him,' and patted her flat belly.

Jayne: Jayne dreamed of Miranda, they all did, but most often he dreamed of River, taken by Reavers, and despaired. He never had been as good or as bad a man as he had wanted. A better man would have helped, he felt sure. A worse man wouldn't have cared. But he had been neither. The first time he had woken up with River crouched by his face, he had nearly cried out. But she had merely stared at him sadly, and then whispered, 'She forgives.'

Simon and Kaylee's dreams River had largely left to Simon and Kaylee. Mostly they had been sweet, and nightmares had been quickly dispatched by the other's presence.

What River dreamed of, no one had disclosed. Maybe Mal knew what swam in the depths of the Albatross's brain. Maybe not. But she knew their minds. And their hearts. And she brought solace.

And they loved her for it.


End file.
